Cross-Flow Liquid-Liquid Extraction

Consider the separation of -dioxane and water using benzene as a liquid-liquid extraction solvent. The distribution coefficient is constant equal to 1.2 and the following relationship holds: , where is the ratio of the masses of -dioxane and benzene and is the ratio of the masses of -dioxane and water. 10000 kg/hr of a 25-weight-percent solution of dioxane in water is contacted with 15000 kg/hr of solvent in cross-flow stages with solvent split. The Demonstration plots the equilibrium straight line in red and step-off stages using the user-specified value of . Finally, the percent recovery of -dioxane is displayed in green. It is clear that the percent recovery increases if one increases the number of cross-flow stages, .